Kobakhidze Offers EU Open Political Dialogue

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that Georgia has a clear and simple offer for the European Union: to start a dialogue. According to him, this dialogue should be conducted at the political level and should be open and public for Georgian society. The prime minister answered a question on relations with the European Union after the sessions of the Political Council and the majority concluded.

Kobakhidze explained that they expect nothing new from the enlargement report in November, as they do not see any substantial change in the European Commission's approaches.

"Probably the new report will be similar, given that we do not see any substantial change in the European Commission's approaches, which is very unfortunate. You see that there are double standards and an unfair attitude towards the Georgian people, which has not changed so far. Therefore, we do not think we should expect any improvement, which is a sad reality," Kobakhidze said.

The prime minister said that steps should be taken from both sides. According to him, ultimately decisions are made by politicians on both sides, so it is fundamentally important that dialogue begins at the political level. As a second principled issue, he named that dialogue and discussion should be open and public for Georgian society.

Kobakhidze described this offer as absolutely ideal and said that no issue can be resolved without dialogue. According to him, they do not know why their offer cannot receive a positive response. According to the prime minister's assessment, if there is a desire to improve relations, representatives of European structures should easily agree to the offer, because dialogue cannot have any downside.